A Glimpse at the Portuguese Employees' Perceptions of Training and Development: What They Get is What They See?

Training and development (T&D) has become a paramount subject in the workplace and societies, particularly in today's scenario of the European crisis. T&D literature has long highlighted the benefits for employees, managers and governments of training and education strategies and systems. However, the employees' perception of the T&D process has been systematically neglected. This paper presents an exploratory study focusing on the employees' perception about the T&D rationale, the initiatives, and tools used by their employing organizations. A sample (n= 101) of currently employed MSc students enrolled in management courses at a Portuguese University was used to analyse their opinion about the employers' reasons to invest in training activities, the organizational instruments adopted to conduct the training needs' assessment and evaluating the training effectiveness, and the problems underlying the whole process of training within their organizations. A questionnaire was used to collect data on those issues. Results are analysed and some major implications for employing organizations are discussed.